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LakdivaCoin Collection

A web display of a personal collection of Ancient, legally circulated colonial, and modern coins from Sri Lanka (Ceylon) including 300dpi or higher color images with edited information from various sources.

Lakdiva was called Celio by the Portuguese, Ceylan by the Dutch, Ceylon by the British during colonial Era. It became Sri Lanka in Sinhala language at independence in 1948 but that did not appear on coins till 1957. In 1963 it used the name ලංකා (Lanka in Sinhala) on coins. The official name in English was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972 when Lanka became a Republic. Lanka even took the name Shri Lanka for a brief period in 1992 June and 1993 December, but luckily that did not appear on any Banknote and only one NCLT coin.

coins.lakdiva.org.lk Celebrates 25 Years Online!

LakdivaCoins since 1998 has now documented over 1400 Lankan coins and other ancient Lanka items with greater than 2800 high resolution images on obout 1200 web pages.
Motivated by many reasons this long term project may take many years to complete. It is purely an attempt to put part of my Lankan heritage on the web, as much as I can afford to do so in both money and time. Significant contribution of coins or high resolution images to complete the site will be gratefully acknowledged.

This is a No Frames, No Frills website which does not require Flash or any other fancy plug-ins. Only few use JavaScript to flip images. It does not use any Micro-(brained)-Software product, and is run on an unix server which is friendly to all Internet browsers.
If you a new to this site please read the brief navigating instructions at the bottom of this long page by pulling down the scroll bar on right. Before you Book-mark please Click here.
If you have an old link to this web-site PLEASE make sure it links to coins.lakdiva.org.lk since the redirection from the other domain names I had used previously was breaking frequently and to avoid those domains getting indexed by search engines I have taken out the automatic redirection. THANKS

If you have any questions on Lankan coins or Banknotes please send an E-mail to lakdiva_org @ googlegroups.com . This ensures that my reply is archived, and others can search and get an answer without asking same question again. I used to use AllExperts which terminated abruptly after 19 years in 2017 April. Read my former profile at AllExperts.com which is still on archive.org

The Sri Lanka Numismatic Society (SLNS) met every 3rd Sunday of the month (except if that is a Public Holiday) from 2-4 PM at the Board Room of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 86, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha (Green Path), Colombo 7. (Mahaweli center, near back entrance to Colombo National Museum). Meetings suspended since 2020 March because of COVID-19. Met a few months online at same time on GoogleMeet. Now chats on WhatsApp. If you are interested in Coins and Banknotes of Lanka/Ceylon, you are welcome to join. Please introduce yourself with Name, Location and Collecting interests, with a WhatsApp message to +94712537551.

I may mention rarity, but I have not included any market value of any coin. Price is very subjective, in a small Numismatic market like Sri Lanka, and that is why I don't even attempt to give prices on my website. I have asked some dealers to help create a price list that I was willing to host on my website, but none have obliged. The best resource is to take a look at the price of sold items of that type on eBay, or major online Auctions like Noonans and Spinks for the more rare item.
However finally, the price of any coin is what a seller is willing to sell and at what the buyer is willing to buy, and how many buyers who know about the sale are interested in buying at the price the seller is willing to sell, and how many of that item is available at that time for sale. Simple Supply and Demand.
Please DON'T ASK about valuation I am just a collector not a dealer.

For description of the monetary system in Lanka please read overview.
For E-books on History of Lanka please read Codrington - Mahavamsa -
For the recent value of Lanka Rupee look at depreciation.
If you particularly interest in Lankan coins please read Notes, Media and Warnings.
If you travel in Lanka, I recommend you visit Museums with Lankan coins.

Illustration Topic : Line Drawing features on ancient coin
Preservation Topic : Cleaning Ancient encrusted Lankan coin
Collection Topic : Documentation, Conservation, Security and Handling of Coins Guide
Database : Online Catalog for Lankan Coins.
600 dpi scanned Plates from 1924 First Edition of Codrington's Coin book with Comparison
Latest Definitive Coin - 2018 December 3rd - 2017 Steel Rs 1, Rs 2, Rs 5, and Rs 10 coins
Latest Commemorative Coins
Circulated - 2022 March 21st: Nickel plated Steel
2020 - Colombo Medical Faculty 150th Anniversary - Rs 20 coin
2021 - Sri Lanka Census of Population and Housing 150th Anniversary - Rs 20 coin
NCLT - 2023-02-04 Rs1000 Cu-Ni coin 75th Independence Day. Public Issue 2023-03-09

2018 Dec - Roar Interview - Short 4 min Video - longer Article

Calendars on Lankan Coins : CR 2008 - NDB 2011 - LKD 2022

Incredibly Rare Find Filipe III Gold 163x St Thome coin of Goa
Collection acquired Recently : OBRW Plate Specimens Coins & Tokens from Raja Wickramasinghe's collection.
Dutch Hoard: 19 Silver coins from Dutch Period. 1670
Research Topic : Statistical Analysis of 100 RajaRaja massa coins
Rare Find : The LTTE Gold token from Jaffna, Lanka.
Gold Sovereigns used in Lanka
Unexpected Scarcity : 2009 25 and 50 cent coins in circulation.
Catalog Topic : Mint ReStrikes of Coins from Lanka.
Photo-Essay Ruhuna A site for discovery of ancient Lankan coins and items.
Topical subset : Astronomical Symbols on Coins from Lanka.
Topical subset : Over two Millennium of Elephants on Coins from Lanka.
Topical subset : Over One Millennium of Gold Coins Coins in lakdiva Collection.
On lk Stamps : Coins images on Sri Lanka Stamps.
Recently updated - Coffee tokens of Ceylon
Ceylon USA - tokens including Good For tokens from Ceylon Minnesota.
Special Exhibits : Rare Coins from Ceylon in the Collection of Jan Lingen.
Exhibit: Online Treasure of the Great Basses. 2003 Fall PAN Show - Pittsburgh, USA
Book Online Ceylon Currency British Period 1796-1936 by B. W. Fernando
Article Graeme Stephens on Lankan coins ( PDF 3.65MB) + Appendix ( PDF 0.35MB )
Book Review: Coinage of Sri Lanka(Pre-Colonial Era)By Eranda Adikaram
Art: Art on Lead Tokens from Ancient Ruhuna
Interview: Roar.LK: A conversation on coin Collecting with Dr Kavan Ratnatunga

Lectures : by Dr Kavan Ratnatunga

Website was featured on SLT Rainbow Pages Tourist Directory 2014-15. Pages 54-55

Images of coins from the Lakdiva Collection have been used to illustrate the panels of the Coin galleries of the
National Museum Colombo.
Archaeology Department Museum in Anuradhapura.
Bank of Ceylon Museum in Colombo.
Old coins have features which allow one to identify them Uniquely.
These Museums do have most of these coin types, but to copy from my website without any acknowledgement, seems to be much simpler than scanning or photographing their own coins.

For Information on Lankan Currency Notes Visit notes.lakdiva.org.lk

Coins from Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Main Coin Collection

Numismatics, like some aspects of astronomy and natural history, remains a branch of learning in which the amateur can still do valuable work, and it is on the great collecting public, or rather on that part of which is interested in the subject at a scientific level, that the progress of numismatic science largely depends.

Philip Grierson - Prof of Numismatics, University of Cambridge.

Of all antiquities coins are the smallest, yet, as a class, the most authoritative in record, and the widest in range. No history is so unbroken as that which they tell; no geography so complete; no art so continuous in sequence, nor so broad in extent; no mythology so ample and so various. Unknown kings and lost towns, forgotten divinities and new schools of art have here their authentic record. Individual character is illustrated and the tendencies of races defined.

- R.S. Poole, Coins and Medals Curator, British Museum (1894).

After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together.

- Hemant Joshi

Who in the World read this Coin Website - New Statistics from 2015 September 16th.

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Navigating Instructions
Please click on the colored or underlined link such as on the word coin to get to page with description and images of each of the items listed above. Some of the images are displayed on those pages at less than the scanned resolution of image.
To see them at full size if necessary please right click and view image.
Permission is granted for linking over Internet, distribution in print form for educational nonprofit purposes and personal use. Electronic redistribution for nonprofit purposes is permitted, provided this notice is attached in its entirety and please indicate the source, with link to the explicit page in http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/ from which the image and/or text was taken to enable reader to get latest version.
Unauthorized, for-profit redistribution is prohibited. NO permission is granted for commercial use, without request ed and authorized approval.
NEVER USE CONTENT OR LINK TO ANY PAGE OF THIS WEB SITE FROM ANY INTERNET AUCTION
Read and use the information as you need but please DONOT COPY, any webpage into an Auction Listing
© 1998-2021 lakdiva.org
The owner of the copyright allows use of any lakdiva.org coin images in the Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
As long as a link is made back to the original source webpage of image at http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk
Many images of this website have been loaded into Colnect.com Coin pages for Ceylon and Sri Lanka.

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